Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

Just remember, you asked for it! Telling me to suggest books is like telling an alcoholic to suggest bars. And, hey, thanks for the kind words in your post. I was having kind of a bad day yesterday and you really cheered me up. In addition to all your other virtues, you're very sweet, Ruchie. I appreciate that a lot, mostly because I'm not.

Okay, here we go. I know you said in an earlier post that you don't read "racy" books, so I've tried to indicate when one of these might be a bit much for you. Some of them I read so long ago, I simply don't remember.

(Once I got this written, I realized a lot of the books I was suggesting were somewhat dark. So I marked the fun/funny ones in red.)

Books that I find healing

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - The family most of us wish we had.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - This book is about healing: physical, emotional, and spiritual. Plus it's a really nice read. The Tasha Tudor illustrations are the best.

In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden - The story of an enclosed order of Bendictine nuns. I'm always awestruck by people who truly live their religion, day in and day out, in all things large and small.

Three great books and one great trilogy

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin - The best scifi novel I've ever read and the first scifi novel to win both the Hugo and Nebula awards. A human envoy visits a planet where the inhabitants are also human - except they are both male and female in one. Issues of sexual identity permeate the book, but I don't remember it as being sexually explicit.

Shape of Snakes by Minette Walters - A very good mystery writer has written an extraordinary novel. A seemingly average wife and mother is determined to discover what really happened to her young neighbor 20 years earlier. Un-put-down-able. After I read this, everyone on my gift list got this book.

Dooms Day Book by Connie Willis - I include this a little hesitantly because I only read it 3 months ago and it's too soon to tell if it will resonate like the others in this list. Nonetheless, it's an amazing book: mesmerizing, heart-breaking, and yet somehow hopeful. It's classified as science fiction because it involves time-travel, but as one of the reader reviews at B&N says, "if this were not pigeon-holed as 'science fiction' it would be acknowledged as one of the best novels of the later 20th century". A young woman travels back in time to do research in the Middle Ages. Things go awry and she finds herself in the right place at the wrong time - literally.

The Merlin Trilogy by Mary Stewart - This consists of The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, and The Last Enchantment. This is historical fantasy and it's one of those novelizations of past events that you read and go, "Oh, okay, this is really how it happened." In addition to being a great story, the prose is beatiful, almost crystalline. (B&N is now calling these three books "The Arthurian Saga", but this is Merlin's story.) Oh, and skip the fourth book.

Historical Novels

Autobiography of Henry VIII and Memoirs of Cleopatra both by Margaret George - Two cracking good reads. Written in the "first person", they're totally convincing. Again, historical fiction that convinces you you're reading historical truth.

Traveler by Richard Adams - The autobiography of Robert E. Lee's horse. A very good read, very touching.

The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley - The story of Kassandra (Cassandra) of Troy. Another "this is the way it was" book.

Gates of Fire by Stephen Pressfield - The Spartans' stand at the Battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartans held hundreds of thousands of Persians for 6 days. This one is somewhat sexual and incredibly violent.

Mysteries

First, a Website: www.stopyourekillingme.com. Want to find all the books in a series? Know a character's name but can't remember the author? Just want to browse through mysteries? This is your Website.

Almost anything by Agatha Christie - The big ones are: Death on the Nile, Murder on the Orient Express, and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (a must read). Some of my personal favorites include: Murder In Retrospect, The Tuesday Club Murders (Miss Marple short stories), Cards on the Table, Murder in Mesopotamia, The Murder at the Vicarage, etc., etc., etc. Oddly enough, I don't like her Tuppence & Tommy Beresford mysteries - luckily she didn't write many of those.

Firestorm and Blind Descent both by Nevada Barr - These are part of the Anna Pigeon series. Anna is a National Parks Ranger and the various books take place in various parks. I'm usually meticulous about reading series in order, but I think these two books stand head and shoulders above the others in the series.

One For The Money by Janet Evanovich - This is the first in a series featuring Stephanie Plum, a Trenton, New Jersey, bounty hunter with big hair, a big mouth, and not one, but two hunky men in her life. It's hysterically funny, but may well be too sexy for your tastes.

Straight, Decider, Banker, Hot Money, and Reflex all by Dick Francis - Most of Francis' novels are good, but these are my favorites. I think his later ones are less readable and I did not like his Sid Halley novels. All the ones I listed and almost all of his other novels have to do with horse-racing in one form or another. Incredibly clean writing style and remarkable protagonists. I also find his books excellent on audio which is unusual for me.

The Mrs. Pollifax mysteries by Dorothy Gilman - There are a zillion of these. They start off being fun and get darker as the series goes on. It seems a lot of series do that - I wonder why? Mrs. Pollifax is an elderly widow who gets bored with life and decides to go to work for the CIA.

A Nun in the Closet and Tightrope Walker by Dorothy Gilman - It's hard to imagine two more different mysteries. A Nun in the Closet is laugh out loud funny, while Tightrope Walker is about doing the right thing and discovering yourself along the way.

The Spenser series by Robert B. Parker - The archetypal tough-guy PI. The series starts with The Godwulf Manuscript and now totals more than 30 books. This series is better read in order. Parker also writes the Jesse Stone series and the Sunny Randall series. If you like Spenser, you'll like those series, too. People in his books have sex, but there are no mechanics; you know, like, his hand goes there, her hand goes here. It's just "we went into the bedroom then later..."

The Kinsey Millhone series by Sue Grafton - The archetypal tough-gal PI. The series starts with A Is For Alibi and is now up to S Is For Silence. Very good, very highly recommended. There is sex is some of the books, but nothing I would consider particularly steamy. Well, except for that scene on the spiral staircase.

The Peter Shandy series by Charlotte MacLeod - This series starts with Rest You Merry which is sadly out of print, but definitely worth looking for. Funny and fun, I cannot recommend this series highly enough if you're just looking to enjoy your reading. Peter is a professor at an agricultural college in Balaclava County, Massachusetts. His wife, Helen, is the librarian.

The Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters - Very funny. Amelia is a Victorian archaeologist - with definite opinions on everything - working in Egypt around 1900. This series should definitely be read in order, starting with The Crocodile on the Sandbank.

The Jacqueline Kirby series by Elizabeth Peters - Jacqueline is a librarian turned romance novelist. I want to be her when I grow up. There are only four of these books which is a shame - they're fun and each one is better than the one before. The series consists of with Seventh Sinner, The Murders of Richard III, Die For Love, and Naked Once More. No, not racy at all.

Summer of the Dragon by Elizabeth Peters - A stand-alone novel that's a lot of fun. Almost all Elizabeth Peter's mysteries are enjoyable.

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey - A modern detective with time on his hands tries to determine what really happened to Richard III's 2 little nephews. A wonderful read.

Odds and Ends

Incident at Badamaya by Dorothy Gilman - An odd little book about a group of people trying to get out of 1950s Burma. Mystical.

Range of Motion by Elizabeth Berg - A young woman's husband falls into a coma. She struggles to bring him out of it. A very, very , very good book.

I could go on and on and on here, but I think that's enough to start with. If you want more, just ask.

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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]

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